Travel booking technology specialist Vibe announces appointment of Steve Barrass

Former boss of The Appointment Group will join firm as interim chief executive

Steve Barras has been named as interim chief executive at travel booking technology firm Vibe and sister company P&P Group.

He is to join in November to drive international growth and strategy.

Barrass was most recently chief executive of global travel management and events company The Appointment Group (TAG) which he left in May.

His previous roles in a 30 year travel industry career include senior vice president at dnata, chief executive of Gold Medal Travel Group, managing director of Direct Holidays at Thomas Cook Group and non-executive director at Holiday Taxis.

Vibe powers online travel agencies, TMCs and other digital travel sellers while P&P Group is a licensed travel business that operates a range of online travel brands including The Internet Traveller and The Cruise Traveller.

Founder Phil Cook said: “I am delighted Steve has agreed to join us as the interim CEO. 

“Steve brings a wealth of knowledge and experience of the travel industry to P&P Group and Vibe. We look forward to working with Steve on strategy and growth over the coming months.”

Barrass added: “I’m excited to be joining Phil and his very competent team at such a pivotal time.

“I’ve been looking for the right opportunity where my experience would add value to a superb business with a platform that is well positioned for sustainable growth. 

“My background has allowed me to look at Vibe’s technical capability from both a leisure and corporate travel perspective and I was impressed, I haven’t seen anything with such a broad range of functionality that can service and work across both segments simultaneously.”